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Week one roundup post
Brick!club Week 1 overview Wow I know I can’t POSSIBLY respond to every single Brick!club post, (though I may be about to try) but I really reeeeeally want to— there’s so much good discussion! But I can at least read them, and get sort of an overview. General things I keep seeing from the chapters and the discissions this week: -Hugo was a snarky, sarcastic so-and-so for all his earnest idealism. Geez, no wonder Bossuet Happened. -The Bishop’s pretty great,but we all think the couch issue is ungood. “It’s Just a Couch” may well be the rallying cry of the week. -With all the griping about Hugo’s overdetailed descriptions, an enormous number of posts STILL WANT MORE. What about the hospital? What about the cows? How did the women live, was cleaning all they did? Thank goodness Hugo’s long dead because he totally would have cracked his knuckles and grabbed his pen and gone “WELL LET ME TELL YOU.” …That’s a lot of cleaning though? —Watching your country struggle with crushing poverty and injustice to the point of public execution is a harsh mistress. - Windows are a bad tax bracket indicator. -Those of us who have already traversed the Revolutionary Apocalypse cannot NOT talk about Les Amis. WE ARE TRYING it is not working. Sorry, Hugo, you wanted a nice multistage narrative story and all we want to do is talk about how the Bishop’s asceticism reflects and relates to Enjolras’ virginity themes. In our defense: Enjolras. And Les Amis. New People and First Readers, Whoops Sorry We Are Making This Section About Les Amis, I swear you will understand when we get there.Please be patient with us. - Seriously the couch thing though, that’s just sad. Commentary Caramarthenfan Fear not, Amis fans, I will eventually manage to make everything about Javert and Valjean and prison reform movements to counterbalance things. :-P (Seriously, this is a lot of fun; I haven’t had anything to say about the last few chapters, but I’m enjoying reading everyone’s posts.) Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Caramarthenfan) I will join you so hard in making everything about Javert, trust me. Valjean less so except inasmuch as he relates to Javert (which is basically in all the ways so never mind). Pilferingapples (reply to Caramarthenfan) BUT WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT PRISONS AND PRISON REFORM. WHERE ARE YOUUUUU Seriously, I would very much welcome some input on these movements in their social context. Caramarthenfan (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) Sick and cannot brain this weeeeek (I had to give up on reading most of the posts when my head clogged up a few days ago. TOO MANY SMART WORDS TO HANDLE). :-( And I don’t feel qualified to talk much about prison reform much just yet. Icarus5800 (reply to Caramarthenfan's reply) I would love to read about prison reforms and any and all other historical contexts, since my fics are probably the most historically inaccurate things ever. (Not that I would ever allow historical accuracy to get in the way of advancing the plot if it comes down to it—which I learned from Hugo, by the way—but some background knowledge would be nice.) Caramarthenfan (reply to Icarus5800's reply) I spent a good chunk of this weekend groggily overhauling my 6+ years out of date fannish website, mainly with an eye to doing something with all the historical resources I come across when I’m researching fic. So I shall certainly be dumping and and all resources I come across there as I get more organized. In the mean time, three things that might be of interest, most of which I’ve mentioned before: 1. A bunch of resources and conversations in this chatter thread http://makinghugospin.livejournal.com/12076.html?thread=4149548#t4149548. 2. If you read French or are prepared to wade through Google Translate, Vidocq’s 1844 essay Considérations sommaires sur les prisons, les bagnes et la peine de mortfvidocq.free.fr/Downloads/PDF_Considerations.pdf (PDF) has some really interesting stuff in it so far. I am slowly working on translating it and will hopefully be able to share it when I’m done. (One thing I’m really curious about is whether there are any parallels between this essay and Javert’s suicide note, or other parts of the Brick.) 3. A.L. Millin’s Travels through the southern departments of France: Performed in the years 1804 and 1805 http://books.google.com/books/about/Travels_through_the_southern_departments.html?id=AgA8AAAAMAAJ, starting on page 236, talks a lot about the bagne of Toulon. And yes, Hugo’s approach to accuracy vs. plot definitely came down on the side of plot. I personally think it’s often most effective to know as much as you reasonably can and then deviate from it deliberately, though, but that may just be because I have a terrible research fetish. :-P